


you crushed the edge of symmetry

by blood__plum



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Android Emotions, Angst, Brotherly Angst, Gen, can be read as daforge, can be read as strong friendship, it's mostly Lore ranting bc he is angst carnate, songfic kinda, tried to format this like an episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26800252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blood__plum/pseuds/blood__plum
Summary: Lore really thought he had outsmarted Kivas Fajo this time. But at least now there is someone to listen to him ranting while in captivity.Set somewhere between Brothers and Descent.
Relationships: Data & Geordi La Forge, Data & Lore (Star Trek)
Kudos: 17





	1. Leech

**Author's Note:**

> soooo I am in the middle of a serious TNG binge and rewatched Brothers a few days ago and I really feel like Lore deserved more episodes. kind of a songfic on/inspired by Katatonia's Leech because the lyrics are too fitting to Data&Lore to not use. rated T bc of short description of violence and implied noncon. been a long time since I wrote in english so please forgive any mistakes

_First Officer’s Log, stardate 44975.3. We are on our way back from Bahut V, where Mr. LaForge and Mr. Data have been helping the members of this unusual species after the unforeseen effects of mining caused several earthquakes threatening their capital. With the knowledge we have now, we were able to set up a force field around the affected area that should dampen the effects. This species, the Ulmuns, have been in the sight of the Federation for a while, but their refusal to use transportation technology-to the extent where they requested us to arrive by shuttlecraft if they were to accept the aid-has made communication and trade with them kind of difficult._

Riker pushed a button on the panel, ending the recording. He leaned back in his chair, hoping it would be more comfortable, even if he couldn’t stretch himself fully in the small shuttle. They still had hours to kill before they reached the Enterprise, and the long-range vessel wasn’t really built with comfort in mind.

„I can’t wait to be back home” he sighed „trying to be diplomatic with these superstitious people wasn’t really the best way to pass my time.”

„Well, do you think explaining them how a permanent force field won’t alter their brainwaves was more fun?” Geordi snapped back „I don’t even know how such a species became warp-capable.”

„Actually,” Data interjected „warp technology is still regarded as „potentially carcinogenic” according to Ulmun regulations, and only those parttake who do not believe in such effects”

„Yeah yeah, I get that”

„Such beliefs lacking any scientific proof in a society are not entirely unheard of, for example during the two-thousand-and-twenty coronavirus outbreak on Earth, a significant amount of people attributed its appearance to the newly introduced communication protocols. Similarly, on Bajor-”

„Thank you, Data” the two other men interrupted in unison.

Silence fell on them, as the android took over piloting the shuttle, allowing the humans to finally rest. With the lights dimmed and the impulse engine’s slow hum in the background, even the uncomfortable chairs proved to be as good as the softest bed would have been.

Suddenly, as if a photon torpedo exploded next to the shuttle, everything shook for a moment, then the silence returned.

„What happened?” Riker jolted up.

„An unexpected black matter vortex appeared 700 km from us. Our long-range sensors have not detected it due to its small size, but its graviton fields interfered with our engine. I have compensated for it. Do not worry, Commander.”

He _was_ worrying. As he tried to fall back into dreamworld, he stared first at the android’s face, softly illuminated by the navigation panel’s backlighting, then at the stars spotting the dark velvet of space, but not even they could bring comfort to him. Something was not right about them. At first, he chalked it off to his vision being blurry from exhaustion. But even like this, the colourful circle of a planet appearing in the corner of the window wasn’t something he should have been seeing in between planetary systems.

„Have we changed course, Mr. Data?”

„Yes, Commander. The shearing force the gravity field from the black matter vortex on the hull was threatening the structural integrity. I have adjusted our course to stay out of its field.”

Something was still not right. But before the first officer was able to figure out, the engineer did.

„Black matter vortexes don’t usually have a shearing force on objects passing by them. Data, what’s going on?” Geordi clicked his VISOR back on, and was about to get up, when he felt a phaser held directly against his temple. He looked up. The lighting only allowed him to perceive the shadow of the man with a softly glowing aura in front of him, but the pale fingers holding the weapon were unmistakable.

„No.” He said as softly as ever.

Riker leapt up, only to be thrown into the back door of the spacecraft by the unhuman power the android had. Then, he grabbed the other man’s uniform, pushed him, letting him stumble over the chairs to the floor next to his crewmate.

„Data, what are you doing? Stop the shuttle! That’s an order!” The bearded man yelled as he tried to get back on his feet, ignoring the pulsing pain in his back from the impact of door’s handle. But as soon as he moved closer, a force field activated, separating him from the android and all control panels of the ship. “Where are we going?”

“No use.” Geordi sighed in desperation. “I don’t think what we say even registers in his circuitry… you know like when he just took over the ship to meet his father or when those criminal balls of light took over him… probably this force field blocks sound anyways.” He tapped his commbadge, but only got a faint buzz in return. “And communications, obviously.”

“I get the point. And we can’t even fight, nor outsmart-”

“Nope.”

A tiny bit of hope sparked in them, as they heard the familiar beeps of an incoming hail.

“Enterprise to Hypatia.” The captain’s voice echoed for a moment.

“Data here.”

“Why have you diverted from your projected course?”

“We have encountered an unknown space anomaly, undetected by our long-range sensors. We have modified our course to avoid the effects of its graviton field on our engines.”

“Understood. How soon can we expect you? I can’t wait to hear your reports on the Ulmuns.”

“Our estimated arrival is in 7 hours 45 minutes, sir.”

Geordi felt like punching the wall in frustration. In almost 8 hours, anything and anyone could pick them up, before the Enterprise came looking for them. He made a mental note, that when (if) all this was over, he needed to look through Data’s programming for all these holes in his security. Or at least, he hoped it was another being overtaking, and not Data deciding he had enough of them…

His racing thoughts were interrupted by being embraced by the blue glow of being transported.

As they rematerialized, the exhaustion and the pain from being thrown like a ragdoll came crashing down on him even stronger than before. The room they found themselves in was barren, save for a few seemingly random objects thrown around, like a vase on a small table, a cabinet with what appeared to be bones inside of it, or a small statue in the corner, what was indistinguishable from a cheap Risian souvenir. The door hissed open, and a man in a long, crimson cloak appeared, followed by many more in black, holding disruptor rifles. Then one more, his yellow eyes glowing against his pale skin.

“Take them” the one in crimson pointed at the two humans, who were promptly grabbed by the soldiers “they fit nowhere in my collection, but trust me, I will find some use…”

“Fajo…” Riker sneered.

“Yes, Kivas Fajo, at your service. Or, well, more like, you are at _my_ service, isn’t it?” The Zibalian giggled. “Now, get out of my view”

Data still stood motionlessly in the spot he was transported to, not even his eyes moved until they met with another pair exactly like themselves.

“Welcome, brother…” Lore waved around ceremoniously.

“Yes, yes, welcome back” Fajo nodded. “I can’t believe my luck!”

Data blinked in confusion. It seemed as if a spell wore off from him.

“Why am I here?”

“Oh, my dear Data, have you forgotten me?”

“You are Kivas Fajo. What are you doing with my brother? Why am I here? I wish to leave”

“I thought you said you controlled him!” Fajo snapped at Lore, who took a step back before starting to apologize and to explain how he will soon remove every bit of his twin’s free will, but his algorithm wasn’t perfect yet.

“You see,” the trader turned back to Data “after you and your Starfleet friends landed me in jail, I had to rebuild my collection from nothing. But on the way there, I found even better than I previously had in you-a better model, the perfect to your imperfection, now equipped with emotions! How wonderful! And when he offered me to also have you… I felt like the luckiest collector on this side of the galaxy!”

As soon as Data opened his mouth to retort, he continued “And now I know how to make you the good, obedient toy you were designed to be-you wouldn’t want to see your friends hurt, would you?”

“The Enterprise will come looking for us. Captain Picard-”

“Oh, bla-bla. By when they realize you are missing, we will be halfway across the quadrant. And all that thanks to you, and whatever lie Lore made you tell… and your ethical subroutines still won’t allow you to hurt me in any case-even if the force fields allowed you to do so. But now, that’s enough speaking, you know the drill, I will let you have your family reunion here in private, but by when I come back, I expect both of you to be wearing that, and sitting there,” he pointed to a chair with some clothes draped over it “or your friends will be the ones at the wrong end of these disruptors!” With that, he was already out of the door, leaving the two androids alone.

Lore’s knees buckled. he attempted to hold onto a rack of old Earth swords, but they turned to dust the moment he touched them.

“Brother! Are you functioning within-”

“No Data, I’m not _okay_!” He slowly lowered himself to the floor “Do you know how much effort it took to modify the homing beacon our father used, just to bring you here? And this Fajo, he isn’t really the patient kind…”

“Why have you brought me here?”

Lore motioned him to come closer and closer, until his brother was on one of his knees above him, their face nearly touching.

“This way they can’t hear us.” He breathed.

“Why have you brought me here?” Data’s voice was also barely a whisper in volume, but he retained his emotionless tone.

“Yeah, well” Lore shrugged “I ran out of ideas on how to escape from this asshole. I thought I could buy my freedom by delivering you, or at least you would have some better ideas than I did.”

Data tilted his head to look at him. He took several moments to process the information just heard, even despite the millions of thoughts in his head at all times.

“And you know… I tried everything. But unlike you, I feel pain-our father be damned for cursing me with this-and he realized that very quickly. Probably learned a lot on how to deal with androids from the last time too… I mean, he tried the ‘obey me or I will kill this servant’ thing on me, but after about 7 of them, he realized that wouldn’t work on me…positronic shocks on the other hand…”

“Why do you think I will help you? You have betrayed the colonists on Omicron Theta, you would have ended all life on the Enterprise, you have taken our father’s life and taken the emotion chip that was meant to be used by me. What reason do I have to help you?”

“If I wouldn’t know better, I’d say you are angry at me, brother”

“Possibly I would be, if I was in possession of the emotion chip”

Lore let out a dry laugh. “Tell me, ain’t it wonderful to feel?”

“I do not have emotions.” Data raised his eyebrows “What reason do I have to help you?”

His neck was grabbed by his brother, which brought his head even closer, to the point where their faces were nearly touching. The answer was merely a whisper.

“Because that is how you are, sweet Data. You can’t resist helping the weakest. And you see, this is where your love towards humans and other organics brought you. You jump at every chance to be the hero of the day. No wonder you saw a disabled man and was like, ‘yeah, that’s the best friend I want!’”

The younger android opened his mouth to answer but he could not. He considered every possible answer, despite not being able to articulate any of them coherent enough. He learnt in his time with the Enterprise crew, that he had to express every detail of his thoughts if he wished to be understood but sharing too many details often made everyone annoyed. Would Lore react the same way, he wondered, if he told every detail of how although he did not feel hate, had no wish to see him ever again and in a blink of an eye would have allowed Fajo to turn him into dust.

“You make me wish I were an only child.”

Lore rolled his eyes. “Tell me something I don’t know. Let _me_ tell _you_ something. You won’t get away alone. Fajo has really learnt from the last time. But I have half of an idea on how to escape.” His yellow gaze sparkled with newfound intensity.

Data sat back. He tried to access every file in his memory banks about his last encounter with the Zibalian trader, but one recurring thought has seemed to knot itself into a loop, dragging every single subroutine into it. “What have I done to my friends? To Geordi and Will? What will happen to them?” Ethics. Orders. Friendship. He broke all of them. He had to increase the pace on this artificial breathing, to help the cooling on his overheating circuitry. He played down millions and millions of possible scenarios on how he could have escaped by himself, but in the end, had to concede-this time, he did not know if he could do it alone. If Lore’s idea was a way to contact the Enterprise… maybe he could leave him back here. But that would be betrayal. Then he would be all the same as Lore was-which was the farthest of what kind of a human he wanted to be. His fingers balled up into a first, holding it so strong his tendons were close to snapping.

“I am willing to listen to your idea,” he conceded “in case I find it an agreeable way to escape, I will provide the help you need.”

“Agreeable? You mean one that saves your pathetic humans too, don’t you?”

“I will not leave Geordi behind.”


	2. Dethroned&Uncrowned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter two!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote most of this between 1 and 3 am. that's all there is to be said I guess

47 times exactly, Data had to correct his older brother’s plan, much to his dismay. And now it has been 3 hours 53 minutes 7 seconds since they were sitting without speaking a word, only the buzzing sounded from time to time, as Data poked the positronic field next to the door. They had one chance at this, so they had to perform every possible test on their hands. And he didn’t feel the pain from it. So he sat there, poking the field periodically, analysing everything his sensors could read.

“Stop. They will come soon.”

“I am not finished yet. My aural sensors indicated a shift in the positronic field’s frequency if I hold my finger to it for more than 2 seconds 265 milliseconds, which is a sign of the overload on the emitter which we are looking for. More tests need to be performed on how the field reacts to a higher area of contact. I am not certain the dampeners in our cranial units will be able to handle the load for longer than 2 seconds 700 milliseconds, which means…”

“Not more than two and a half seconds or it will fry my brain and it will hurt all the way through. Gotcha.”

Lore knew exactly when Fajo would arrive-too soon. Their plan wasn’t finished yet. The trader was smarter than his childish demeanour would have suggested, and they were both certain, that if he discovered the weakness in the positronic field emitters they planned to exploit, he would have gotten it fixed as soon as possible. Then he would be back to square one. And then bringing his brother there would have been in vain.

Every day was the same for 29 of them by then. Every day, at exactly the same time, Fajo brought in another trader, after treating them to a gratuitous breakfast, to boast or to make a deal, and paraded him around. Disobedience meant pain. First it meant deaths, but he was indifferent to deaths, unlike to the burn of a painstik against his skin. And it was at least one more day like that-they had to see what new method of manipulation the Zibalian had-before it got out of hand.

“Don’t you ever get lonely?” he whispered to his brother, as soon as he was sat next to him on the chair, in the clothes given to them, like a _good obedient toy_.

“I do not understand the question.”

“Somewhere, I understand your desire to be helpful-that way the humans will love you and you would give your life for it. After almost two years of floating in space, alone, I would have also considered giving my life for someone to talk to me. That desire has passed after two minutes with the Pakleds. I nearly threw myself out of an airlock because that seemed better than being near those bumbling idiots. Did you ever give me a thought?”

Data stared at him confusedly.

“I thought you were… not active.”

“You mourned for humans, I know you did. Noone ever mourned for me. Organics…they always have a poor judgement in who to look up to. I’m displeased you take after them.”

“None of them have sentenced thousands to die, as far as I am aware.”

The door opening left no time for Lore to answer. First, a soldier entered, dragging two lifeless bodies with him. Then Fajo emerged, alone-unlike it was expected-with a knife in his hands.

“What did you do them?”

The trader laughed “Don’t worry my dear Data, they are alive. You should be happy seeing how blissfully asleep they are, and they will be until pain wakes them up. We wouldn’t want that, would we?” The silver blade had a blinding contrast against the dark skin it danced against.

The android tried to stand up but stopped when he felt the force field pushing him back to the chair. 2 seconds 143 milliseconds 26 square inches of contact. But he couldn’t have kept pushing. Not like that. Not while Fajo had his knife held against Geordi…

“I see you are already starting to give up. Wonderful. Now I wanna know, exactly how perfect you are?”

“I do not understand your request.”

Lore buried his face in his hand. He went through this game of Fajo’s sick mind already and now he had to watch it again-or even worse, participate.

“Strip.”

Data hesitated. “My modesty subroutines would not allow me to…”

The trader bent down to Riker laying on the floor. “So then, he will scream.” The blade slashed against the men’s chest, leaving a thin red trail behind itself.

And then Data obeyed, ignoring the burning sensation of conflicting subroutines multiplicating in his programming, much akin to the hollow feeling behind his ribcage.

* * *

The light automatically dimmed itself after Fajo and the soldier left, taking Riker, who was very awake, screaming profanities at his captors, and LaForge, who was still _blissfully_ comatose. It was still enough for the androids to see each other clearly.

“It is because of you,” Data’s emotionless voice was worse than a painstik to Lore’s aural sensors “that I had to do this.”

“I’m sorry brother.”

“Liar. You only feel empathy for me because you wrongly think that having the same positronic brain makes me the same as you are. You only express said empathy because you think that without expressing it like humans do, I will refuse to help you escape.”

“Would you rather have seen me hurt then?” Lore’s voice was full of vitriol. “Because I was.” He slowly teared off the thin layer of cloth that covered him. “Look at this.”

His skin was dotted with the marks a high voltage shock leaves when coming in contact with bioplast sheeting, and with the marks of this sheeting being ripped, exposing the circuitry underneath. Data’s eyes widened.

“ _This_ is what I am telling you to help me escape. If you don’t, that is how your dear Geordi’s skin will look like and trust me, human flesh gives in much quicker.”

* * *

The next day Kivas Fajo found the two androids sitting peacefully in the chair, as he ordered them to, wearing the clothes, as he ordered them to, even putting on the little name tags, ‘Data’ and ‘Lore’, as he ordered them to. He knew how far Data would go to avoid seeing a living being hurt, and he knew how much Lore feared him, but this level of obedience he never dared to dream of. Even the name tags!

Same as the previous day, he didn’t have anyone to boast to, not yet at least. The guest of the day was Palor Toff-now he would see, how it wasn’t just some mannequins he acquired! But first, he needed to make certain, that this time, they would obey him. He ordered the other two prisoners to be brought in, bound, but awake. The knife was sharpened that morning. He loved watching his reflection on the shiny surface.

He ordered his toys to dance for him, sing for him, feed him, and they complied beautifully. Until one of them didn’t.

“Oh Lore, I think we’ve been through this alreadyyy…” He dragged on the last syllable like a nagging child. “Bring me that soup at this instant!”

The android stayed in place, leaning against the replicator with a coy smile.

“Or else…” Fajo’s voice turned into a snarl. “Shock him!”

Sparks flew. The smell of burnt plastic covered the room, as the soldier held the baton to the android’s leg. The limb shook for a moment, but he remained standing.

“You’re getting used to it? Shock him again” Fajo ordered the soldier, but it was of no use. Now, he was forced to turn all his attention on the misbehaving slave. “Again! Again!” To no avail.

“Now!” The other android stood on the opposite side of the room, his hand held against a computer panel. As everyone glanced at him, it gave a moment, a chance for his brother to launch his body at the positronic field protecting the trader. Its buzzing became overbearing until, 2 seconds 52 milliseconds later, the contact broke, and the android collapsed. The computer panel lit up under the fingers that faded into a blur moving across it.

“Wait…” the realization dawned on Fajo, “ _you_ are Lore!”

The one at the computer panel shrugged when the trader’s finger pointed at him.

“You will pay for this!”

Data looked up. His computing capacity was overtaken by the subroutines assessing the damage he has taken from the shockwave, blocking every action, until it was 99.87% sure he could use them without further damage. Later, if anyone would have asked, he would have put this “brain fog” justifying the choice he made. He saw Fajo reaching for the knife in his belt, but despite being able to stop him after the field emitter has been overloaded and deactivated by Lore, he did not. Instead, he directed his actions towards the soldier moving towards his brother. He jumped so fast it was imperceptible to an organic eye. He grabbed the weapon. Its owner only had half a moment to realize what was going on, before it snapped and a punch rendered her unconscious.

Geordi cried out in pain as Fajo stabbed the blade into his thigh.

The ethical subroutine’s binding power took over Data. He felt like the circuits in his stomach were burning up, but his quickly run level one diagnostic found no injury. He was unable to vocalize any thoughts, the only thing occupying his mind was the face of his friend as the knife was driven deeper and deeper.

“Told you! You will pay for this!”

“It’s over now, Fajo. Federation has been alerted, your ship’s control disabled. The only thing standing between you and death is my brother’s ethical subroutines and my… good taste. The one thing humans are good at is inflicting pain on others, and I am certain dying now at my hands would be the better option…”

“Lore, I never thought you were such a Samaritan soul” Riker mumbled.

“You, you should be thankful I am saving your ass right now” the android snapped back.

The trader laughed. He started rambling about the loyalty of his soldiers, but the only thing Data was able to focus on was the way he was still holding onto Geordi’s body, whose breathing was getting more and more shallow by the moment. But he was certain that if he tried to reach for his friend, the Zibalian would not hesitate to hurt him again. Instead, he started freeing the first officer from the ropes he was bound with. After he was assured the man was not seriously injured, he turned his attention back to the rambling still ongoing. He did not realize his soldiers were worthless on the other side of the locked door.

“…I had to realize you guys are not as perfect as I thought you to be. You are not any less pathetic than any other toy I ever played with…“

The terrifying sound of bones crushing and blood gurgling filled the room as Lore lunged towards him. A bright red pool started forming under him sooner than his last breath left his lungs, crashing under the pressure of android hands gripping into it. The protruding eyes were still filled with greed on the head Lore was now holding separate from the body, crushing the skull simultaneously with the last neurons firing away. Nobody else moved until the dead arms let go of Geordi and Data was there to catch him before he fell on the stained floor.

“Who is pathetic now?” Lore wheezed. “Who is imperfect now?”

* * *

“We are within transporter range. Sensors indicate two human and another 43 humanoid life-signs on the ship.” Worf reported.

“Slow to impulse. Can you get them out of there, Chief?” The captain asked through the comm.

“Uhh, there is a problem…”

“What is the problem?” Picard’s voice rarely showed his annoyance, but this time it did.

“There are two signals identical to Data’s in there.”

“It’s Lore, captain” Troi stood up “I sense something… something I only felt when I looked at him. But it’s unusual… like it has an echo…”

“I wouldn’t mind not transporting Lore on the ship…” the Klingon grumbled.

“We are not leaving Data behind. Beam Riker and LaForge directly to Sickbay and Data and Lore to Transporter Room 3 and isolate them with a force field. Worf, take a security team to welcome them. Counselor, can you tell the two of them apart? I am sure Lore will try to pull some trick on us if he sees a chance.”

The woman sighed. “No… I don’t think so. The signals from positronic brains are different…”

The two androids sitting on the floor of the transporter, both covered in blood, were indistinguishable to everyone. Their yellow eyes glowed the same way, and they replied “I am.” in the exact same tone to the question “Which one of you is Commander Data?” Worf felt a splitting headache coming in from trying to guess whether the one wearing the nametag Data could have been the one or was it a trick. None of his questions brought him closer to the solution.

* * *

“Where is Data?”

Dr. Crusher pushed him back on the biobed. “I just removed a knife from your leg, could you stay put just for one minute?”

Geordi sighed, He could, but didn’t want to. He needed to know his best friend was okay.

“At least, can you tell me if he is here or still on that godforsaken ship?”

“He is here,” the doctor reassured him, “we just don’t know which one is he…”

“Which one?”

“We can’t tell him apart from his brother, and they both claim to be Data. Lore is a psychopath, so the captain ordered to keep them in the transporter they arrived to until we figure it out.”

“I need to go now” Geordi regretted jumping on his injured leg the moment he did it.

“No, you don’t!”

The man tore his arm from her grasp. He needed to go.

“I can tell them apart.”

“Can’t that wait? And how?” The doctor glared at him full of disbelief.

“They _glow_ differently!”

* * *

“You’re good to go, buddy” Geordi disconnected the last cable and closed the flap on the back of Data’s head “I fixed the loophole with the homing beacon, and about ten other holes in your security system.”

“Thank you.”

The exhaustion from the last few days crashed down on the engineer with never-before-seen force. Until that point, either fear, or the sense of having to do something kept him awake, but now, with the urgent fix on Data done, there was nothing left to keep him going. He started to see sense in Dr. Crusher pleading him to not go straight to work after recovering from losing so much blood, but he was stubborn about not wanting to stay in Sickbay. He sat down on the sofa, took off his VISOR and started massaging his temples, hoping to relieve his headache. Soon, he realized his legs were too shaky even to get up from there without at least napping a little. The cushioning shifted under the weight as Data sat down next to him. He didn’t need his sight to know exactly which worried expression he had on his face.

“Data?”

“Yes, Geordi?”

“Can I sleep here? Like, right here? I’m done for…”

“Of course.”

“Sure? If you would rather be alone, I can go…” The emotionless tone always made the man think his friend wasn’t sincere, even though he knew Data was always as sincere as he could be.

“No, actually… I would prefer if you stayed here tonight.”

“Why? Lore is locked away in the Brig, he won’t come and hurt either of us…”

Data hesitated for a moment-highly unusual for him.

“It is not about my brother. Geordi, I believe I am feeling emotions now.”

That one statement had an effect not even thousand coffees or hyposprays ever could. He clicked back the VISOR so he could see the expression the android had on his face, but it seemed as blank as every other time. “You are doing what?”

“I am feeling emotions now. And I am… anxious. The time Lal started experiencing emotions, it was the first sign of imminent cascade failure. Although I have ran every level of self-diagnostic since the emotions first appeared and found no aberrations in my system, apart from the emotions themselves, I am… anxious that the cascade failure could begin any moment. In that case, I would like to have you deactivate me immediately, as that would control the damage. I trust no one more than I trust you to be able to do that and to be able to correct the failures afterwards.”

“Have you talked to Counselor Troi about this?”

“She is a psychologist, not a cyberneticist. I fail to see how she could be of help with the aberrations of my-”

“Don’t call your emotions aberrations”

Data tilted his head. “But that is what-“

“No. They are you. If I may ask, what emotions did you feel?”

“I felt hatred when I spoke with Lore. I felt concern when I thought of what Fajo might do to you. I felt anger… I felt relief when I was told you are alright.” _I felt guilt when I realized I chose to help my brother and not you. Guilt. Guilt. Guilt._ The looping sequence remained in the back of his mind.

“Oh Data...” Hugging his friend was an instinctive reaction to the engineer. That is what he would have done to any other troubled friend too. As Data seemed to stiffen up in his arms, doubted this decision, but didn’t let go. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I thought you needed that.”

“Hugging is a common way for humans to express support and affection towards a friend or acquaintance who is dealing with a negative experience. I…appreciate it.”

No matter how much Geordi wished he could have stayed next to his friend, to talk to him about emotions, a wonderful development, he was asleep on his shoulder 38 seconds after the hug was initiated. Data helped him down on the sofa softly, taking off his VISOR, before replicating a blanket for him. When he felt a warmth spreading in his chest, he considered waking him for a moment to deactivate him, but he stopped halfway through the motion.

Emotions. Maybe they were alright for a while.

* * *

Their faces were like mirror images on the two sides of the forcefield. The yellow eyes probed into each other for long moments before Data spoke.

“You will be let go.

“Oh?”

“You will be transported into space at exactly 0800 hours. Captain Picard has ruled that every action we have taken on the Zibalian ship was self-defense and that there is no proof that you are, in fact, still active.”

“What did you say to the old man?”

“I told him how unstable you appeared to be, due to having only limited experience with emotions. Our father did not give you any programming that could have controlled them, thus you are no better than a child in terms of being able to consider the consequences of your actions.”

Lore threw his hands in the air in desperation.

“So that’s what it took? The last of my dignity?”

“Goodbye, brother. Use your freedom the way you wish, however, I do not want to see you again.”

It took Data 831 steps from the Brig to his post at Operations, where he arrived to precisely when dayshift began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So solitary  
> You have been  
> Your time starts to fade  
> Distorted sky  
> And you find me  
> Revolve inside  
> My blood is yours too  
> That's what you say  
> It couldn't be further from the truth
> 
> I find  
> The soul in medication  
> All my loving has turned and washed away
> 
> You took my mind's eye  
> You bring it wherever you go  
> How could you take away  
> The burning I had  
> My rage  
> Static  
> The closing line  
> Whatever you say  
> It's my heart you leech  
> You crushed the edge of symmetry
> 
> Insignificant  
> You are still  
> But my words in your mouth  
> Lingering  
> Spilling over
> 
> I see  
> You don't want liberation  
> You keep belonging to what's not even here
> 
> (Katatonia-Leech)


End file.
